The First Date,

by Zara Stoneley

Publication: One More Chapter; April 24, 2020

first date About the book:

Right place.
Right time.
Wrong guy.

After breaking up with her childhood sweetheart, clueless dater Rosie has found herself in a boyfriend-drought. So when she finally swipes right on a guy who seems interested, she can’t wait to meet up IRL.

Until she’s left standing alone. In a bar. Ghosted.

Enter Noah. Confident, funny… and a serial first dater. Offering to give Rosie a crash course in seduction, this could be just what she needs. Until her matchmaker turns out to be the best date she’s ever had – and Rosie wonders if she wants the fake dates to be the real ones after all…

My Review

The First Date, by Zara Stoneley, is an upcoming rom-com about a woman named Rosie who has no clue how to get a date, flirt with a guy, and so on. She sets up a date on Tinder and the guy is a no-show, however, this is also where she meets the sweet, handsome, and charming Noah. As suggested in the blurb, after these two start hanging out so Noah can give Rosie tips on dating, it becomes unclear if they are really into one another or if it is just all pretending in order to help Rosie gain confidence in the dating world.

I really liked the premise of this book and it seemed to be a perfect, light-hearted read for sitting around in the house all day, for days, with nothing to do. My overall feelings about this book are sort of segmented. I really enjoyed the first 20-25% and I really enjoyed the last 10-15%. Why not the middle and the majority of the book? Rosie’s non-stop obsessing and whining and inner dialogue about her asshole Dad! She had the sleaziest and most selfish father of all time and this grown woman allowed him to control her mind, heart, and soul. If not for this, I think the book would have been fabulous. But everything from dating, to clothes, to hair, career, and everything else all somehow managed to circle back around to her Daddy issues. It was just too much.

The greatest part of the novel was Noah. Yes, he also had some issues but they were small and did not impact every other paragraph of the novel. He was handsome, funny, assertive, and at times – very sexy. Basically, he was the reason I kept reading and didn’t stop when the book would go pages and pages at a time of Rosie recalling moments of her father’s absence, infidelity, or whatever.

Although I didn’t love The First Date, this is definitely an author that I will read again. Reviews of several of her other novels are fantastic, I think this one just went off track a bit too much.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!